Executive

David Buxton

CEO

“As a practitioner I learned how to conduct detailed, painstaking investigations manually. That experience inspired me to found Arachnys, enabling even the largest organizations to define, follow and monitor highly-automated compliance processes with access to whatever data is needed”

David is a former investigator who has advised banks, law firms and leading multinationals on corruption, fraud, money-laundering and other risks. He is a regular speaker on the use of technology for collection, analysis and reporting in a KYC/AML context. He graduated from Oxford University.

Edward Sander

President

“After 5 years running NICE Actimize’s anti-money laundering business and product portfolio, I saw first-hand how financial institutions, around the world, struggle to convert the programs inflating their “cost-of- compliance” into accelerators that can drive topline revenue. The market is calling for capabilities that can de-risk new customers “at the front door” and streamline cumbersome, customer risk lifecycles. Arachnys is changing the game with a platform transforming “branch-to- bank” management of customer risk in the Cloud.”

Edward is a veteran software executive and acknowledged market expert in financial crime specializing in AML, KYC, CDD and EDD compliance disciplines. He has served as a public-company CEO, general manager, chief product officer and global marketing leader across 20+years at Model N, NICE Actimize and SAP. Edward is responsible for Arachnys’ customer and market-facing organisation, leading the company’s sales, marketing, partnerships, customer success, implementation and support resources globally. He received his graduate degree from Columbia University.

Suezann Holmes

CFO

"Arachnys' technology allows our customers to undertake due diligence on individuals and organisations worldwide quickly and cost effectively. It is "one of the most useful programs for fraud and investigations" according to the Wall Street Journal."

Suezann looks after the financials at Arachnys and is a key member of the management team committed to building exponential value in the company. Prior to joining Arachnys, Suezann was the Finance Director, Virgin Media Content Division and the CFO of moo.com. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School and an MA in International Relations from The University of Pennsylvania.

Harry Waye

CTO

“David came to me with a big idea to automate a lot of the repetitive work that highly-skilled analysts everywhere spend too much time on. It was the sort of big data problem I couldn’t resist. Our technology, combined with our regional research specialists, makes what can be very tedious and error-prone work much more effective than a pure human solution.”

Harry is a mathematician turned programmer who studied at the University of Cambridge. His academic interest is in topology, but his programming expertise is wide-ranging, including backend development using Python and C++, and frontend JavaScript coding.

James Hawkins

VP Sales & Channels

"I'm incredibly excited at the true thought-leadership at Arachnys. Driving a holistic approach to risk across front, middle and back offices means financial institutions can segment their client base to optimise for profitability, getting to the point where we can truly drive insight into which markets banks should be targeting. We're completely revolutionising banks' effectiveness at reducing risk, building trust and transparency with regulators, and pragmatically driving immediate time to value on the way."

James leads Arachnys’ global sales, solutions and sales operations teams to partner with the world's largest financial institutions in transforming the entire financial crime and compliance function. James' deep operational fluency of compliance processes, coupled with his technical acumen, enable Arachnys to guide its customers on the latest applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence to accelerate risk assessment and speed revenue acquisition. He received his degree in Economics from Cambridge University.

Edo de Vries Robbé

VP, Partnerships & Strategy

“I’ve been following Arachnys since the early days and joined because I believe Arachnys is currently the hottest thing and the company to watch in the compliance space. I’m thrilled to be able to make a significant contribution to Arachnys' growth and help define the future of due diligence and KYC.”

Edo heads up partnerships, alliances and overall strategy at Arachnys. Before joining Arachnys, Edo spent over five years at The Red Flag Group where he was behind the success of the thriving due diligence business, and instrumental in helping the company make the difficult transition from being small to medium-sized. He brings a wealth of experience, deep domain knowledge and wide breadth of industry relationships to Arachnys.

Douglas Squirrel

VP, Engineering

“Arachnys has built an incredible technology organization, doing innovative and cutting-edge things to harvest data from places nobody else can.”

Squirrel specialises in helping software organisations improve productivity and quality, having most recently built the technology organisation of TIM Group from the ground up and growing revenues from its financial software business from £0 to £10m in seven years.

He provides advice to Arachnys on a wide range of technology and management issues.

Mike Cerillo

Head of Solutions

“While at Bloomberg I saw a dramatic increase in emerging markets engagement from firms in many sectors. Regulatory demands meant there had to be a need for a specialist product to mitigate risk, so when I heard about Arachnys I wanted to be part of it.”

Mike is responsible for the Solutions Team at Arachnys. He previously helped raise government funds for a small charity that encourages online giving, and before that spent 6 years at Bloomberg, working mainly with Swiss-based hedge funds.

Having seen the information business from the inside, Mike brings years of experience of how financial services firms use data and technology to power their businesses.

Lynn Petesch

Global Head of Accounts

“Conducting business safely across borders is an extremely complex problem filled with local know-how that is hard for companies to deal with efficiently. I joined Arachnys because of the sheer size of the market we could impact, particularly with the number of banks and corporates in the USA.”

Lynn leads Arachnys’ account management and customer success teams and has global responsibility for the company's largest customers. Before that, Lynn opened Arachnys' New York office to establish the company's expansion to the US. She joined Arachnys in 2012 after working for Luxembourg’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Luxembourg and Brussels, and the World Food Programme in Geneva and Brussels. She studied Politics at the University of Nottingham and then graduated from LSE with an MSc in International Relations. She speaks fluent French, German, Spanish and Luxembourgish.

Phil Wrigglesworth

Head of Sales Operations

"The challenges faced by banks are constantly changing with a range of new regulations impacting the way risk is perceived and the potential ramifications of insufficient or broken process. I am focused on ensuring that our Sales and Account Management teams are well positioned to help banks solve these challenges through technology."

Phil leads the Sales and Account Management teams in the UK and provides strategic support to the equivalent teams in our New York office. Phil completed his legal education at Nottingham Law School and joins Arachnys having worked for a number of technology companies in legal and commercial capacities.

Directors

Greg Meekings

Chairman

"Whilst I was at Reuters there was a very strong focus on data. For effective due diligence one needs not only data but strong automation, integration of existing systems, and audit trails which are essential to demonstrate real value. This is the focus at Arachnys and it is increasingly recognised by our major clients."

Until 2004, Greg was CIO at Reuters. He has spent 30 years in the production, implementation, sales and operations of IT systems and services. Previously he worked for Logica, First Computer, and a number of technology start-ups.

In addition to Arachnys, Greg chairs two pension schemes with combined liabilities exceeding £1.5bn. As well as being interested in technology he loves to walk, sail and play golf.

Peter Cowley

Investor Director

Peter has a Cambridge University Engineering and Computer Science degree, followed by an entrepreneurial career in software, electronics and property development.

He is now a very active angel investor, mentor, charity trustee and is non-exec director of several start-ups. Peter is also a fellow of the Judge Business School in Cambridge, and UK Angel Investor of the Year.

Advisors

Adam Cohen

Adam has worked as a consultant, investor, and entrepreneur, with stints at Bain & Company and RIT Capital Partners. His last venture was a training business focused on private investors. He sits on the boards of several charitable foundations and is currently writing a novel.

Alan Morgan

Alan Morgan is an investor in growth businesses. He chairs MMC Ventures which invests across sectors, and Adfisco which invests in and advises primarily financial services businesses. He was for many years a senior partner in McKinsey and Co leading its financial services practices in the UK, Europe and Middle East.

Ramona Liberoff

Ramona Liberoff has a twenty year background in strategic marketing and consulting, with a focus on consumer and technology sectors. She has worked for a number of WPP companies, British Telecom and KPMG in senior roles. She holds masters’ degrees from Yale University and the London School of Economics.

Wendy Schmidt

Wendy Schmidt is the former global leader of the Business Intelligence Services practice of Deloitte Advisory. A former litigator, Wendy has over 25 years of experience specializing in the development of background information and intelligence for commercial and government clients, in the context of due diligence, fraud, government investigations, and litigation support. She has also worked with clients to develop third party risk management/vetting programs. While at Deloitte, her interest in cutting edge investigative technology and compliance tools led her to Arachnys, where they developed a strong working relationship.